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Metro Dade County, Organized Crime Bureau (OCB) File on Terrorism

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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-26-10 01:49 PM
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Metro Dade County, Organized Crime Bureau (OCB) File on Terrorism
A little walk down memory lane - for the mewling supporters of RW Cuban exile activities.

Metro Dade County, Organized Crime Bureau (OCB) File on Terrorism
http://cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0073.html

Since May 25, 1977, in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, there have been 24 bombings and attempted bombings. Actually, since 1970, there have been 92 terrorist incidents in the Miami area alone. 65 of these attacks were bombings or attempted bombings. Others were murders of Cuban exiles for political reasons. Nineteen of these incidents were armed expeditions attempted or carried out against Cuba or its allies.

San Juan, Puerto Rico, has had 43 Cuban exile terrorist incidents since 1970. Of these, 41 were bombings and 2 were shooting murders.

New York City has had 25 of these terrorist incidents since 1970.

The Newark area has suffered approximately 16 terrorist incidents since 1970; 13 of these incidents were bombings.

In Washington, D.C., since September 21, 1976, Cuban exile terrorists have blown up the car in which former Chilean Ambassador to the U.S., ORLANDO LETELIER, was driving.
This bombing killed LETELIER and his passenger, RONNI MOFFIT.

In September, 1977, Cuban Exiles were responsible for the bombing of the Soviet Aeroflot office in Washington, as well as for the detonation of a small bomb on the Ellipse, near the White House. As recently as May 19, 1979, a bomb exploded at the office of the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, D.C.

Cuban exile terrorists have blown up ships in the Miami Harbor; they have placed bombs on Russian ships in Puerto Rico and in New Jersey; they have blown up an aircraft in the air, killing all 73 souls on board; they have placed a bomb on an airliner in Miami, this bomb being set to explode while the plane was in the air, full of passengers; they planted a bomb in a car owned by a former Cuban Senator and later the editor of a newspaper in Miami, killing him instantly; they have blown off both legs of the News Director of the largest radio station in Florida. In March of this year (1979), they placed a bomb in a suitcase which detonated as it was being placed aboard a TWA 747 bound from New York to Los Angeles. The passengers were already aboard the jet when the explosion occurred, injuring 4 baggage handlers.

In one 24-hour period in December, 1975, a Cuban exile terrorist placed 8 bombs in the Miami, Florida area. Most of these bombs were placed in Government buildings such as Post Offices, Social Security Offices, the State Attorney's office in Miami, and even in the Miami FBI Office.

There have also been several political shootings attributed to Cuban exile terrorists.

A very well known person in the Miami area who was slain on April 12, 1974, was JOSE DE LA TORRIENTE. Mr. TORRIENTE had retired as Vice President of Collins Radio and was living in Coral Gables, Florida. In 1970 he formed "Plan Torriente" which was a plan which formed an organization to overthrow the government of Cuba. He held rallies in various cities throughout the U.S., collected hundreds of thousands of dollars, and traveled extensively throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe to raise money for an invasion of Cuba. In 1971 numerous articles appeared in the Miami press exposing TORRIENTE as the president of a housing development and using funds collected for personal use. Later the Cuban exile community in Miami severely criticized TORRIENTE for having failed in his plan to invade Cuba.

On April 12, 1974, while TORRIENTE was watching evening TV in the living room of his home, he was shot and killed by someone firing through the window of his house.

Another notorious shooting was that of LUCIANO NIEVES on February 21, 1975. NIEVES, who had been a captain in FIDEL CASTRO'S army, defected and went to live in Miami. While in Miami NIEVES announced that a revolutionary congress would be held between his group and representatives of the Cuban Government to discuss peaceful co-existence. After that announcement he became a controversial figure. In February, 1975, while in the parking lot of a hospital in Miami, he was shot and killed. Several members of a now defunct terrorist group named "Pragmatistas" were arrested and convicted of this murder which had been committed because of NIEVES' advocacy of co-existence with the regime of FIDEL CASTRO.

Several other well-known Cuban exiles have been shot, such as RAMON DONESTEVES ( on April 13, 1976 ), in Miami; ALDO VERA SERAFIN in San Juan ( on October 25, 1976 ), and JUAN JOSE PERUYERO ( on January 7, 1977 ), in Miami. He was a former president of Brigade 2506.

Another well-publicized killing in Miami was that of ROLANDO MASFERRER.

MASFERRER had been a senator in Cuba, but was best known for a small army he commanded in Cuba, known as "Masferrer's Tigers". He used this small army prior to CASTRO'S assumption of power in Cuba to best down any factions which opposed the Cuban government. In Miami he was owner and editor of a Spanish language newspaper named "Libertad". On October 31, 1975, he was blown up by a bomb when he started his car parked at his home.

Having given a summary of the seriousness of Cuban exile terrorism, we should take a look at the reasons for such a problem.

When FIDEL CASTRO assumed power in Cuba on January 1, 1959, most of the inhabitants of Cuba probably backed him because, after all, he had deposed FULGENCIO BATISTA, a tyrannic dictator. However, after a few months it slowly became apparent that FIDEL CASTRO was installing a communist regime in Cuba, and for this reason, hundred of thousands of Cubans began leaving the island. This exodus, which is continuing to a lesser degree even now, furnishes the terrorist with a base of support, as terrorists do not operate in a vacuum; they require political, emotional and physical support.

There are now over 540,000 Cuban exiles in the Miami area. Cuban exiles make over 53% of the population of the City of Miami, and over 60% of the City of Hialeah.

There are approximately 30,000 Cubans living in Puerto Rico; Los Angeles and Chicago each have about 30,000.

In other words, there are some 800,000 Cuban exiles living in the U.S., and there are over 300 political prisoners and their families arriving from Cuba every month.

In addition, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina and Chile also have Cuban communities.

While the great majority of these Cuban exiles respect the law and find terrorism repugnant, a few, fired with hope of one day returning to Cuba, a Cuba without CASTRO, have turned militant and declared war on the CASTRO regime. This is a terrorist war which, as we have seen, has been characterized by bombings of diplomatic installations of Cuba and her allies in this country and abroad, attacks on shipping of Cuba and her allies, attacks on Cuban aircraft, attacks on people who carry the real or imagined label of communists, and attacks on people and organizations, including law enforcement who speak out or take action against their terrorist tactics.

At this juncture, let us examine the various anti-CASTRO terrorist groups, and some of the activities attributed to them.

For the first few years of the CASTRO regime, the United States Government obviously was assisting Cuban exiles in their fight to topple the communist government of Cuba. The U.S. Government supported the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and later supported other Cuban exile groups in their missions against Cuba. Because of this U.S. support there was no terrorism as such until the end of the 1960s, when the various Cuban exile groups began to realize that the U.S. Government was withdrawing support for their anti-CASTRO causes. At that time, in December, 1967, ORLANDO BOSCH AVILA, a pediatrician living in Miami, was organizing a terrorist group known as "Accion Cubana" (Cuban Action). This group also used the name "Cuban Power". This group began by placing bombs at Post Offices in New Jersey and in New York City in December, 1967. Then in January, 1968, in Miami, this organization, "Cuban Power", placed a bomb aboard a B-25 cargo plane. This bomb exploded while the plane was on the ground. The reason for bombing this airplane was that it was to carry cargo to Mexico, which BOSCH felt was for reshipment to Cuba. During this same month, January, 1968, there were 3 other bombings at various business establishments in Miami which engaged in shipping medical supplies to Cuba. In February, 1968, a high explosive bomb blew up at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C.. This "Cuban Power" group, which numbered about 15 persons directly involved in these bombings, were responsible for over 50 bombings in the U.S. in 1968. During that period this group bombed:

British freighter "Cranwood" off Key West in May, 1968.
Japanese freighter "Asaka Maru" at Tampa, Florida, in May, 1968.
Japanese freighter "Mikagesan Maru" on June 1, 1968.
British freighter "Caribbean Venture" in August, 1968.
Spanish ship "Coromoto" in September, 1968.

In August, 1968, information was obtained to the effect that a bomb had been placed on a British freighter, the "Lancastrian Prince". This ship had departed New Orleans, Louisiana, on its way to England. When located it was about 300 mile east of Miami, Florida. The information about the possibility of a bomb being attached to its hull was broadcast to the Captain who brought the ship back off the coast from Miami. A bomb attached to the hull of the ship was retrieved and disarmed. Fortunately, the bomb had not detonated and we were able to obtain fingerprints from newspapers used as packing material in this bomb. Dr. BOSCH and his band of terrorists then decided to shoot at a Polish ship docked in Miami in September, 1968. They shot at it with a 57mm recoilless rifle, but as the projectile was old, it only made a large dent in the ship.

In mid-Summer, 1968, some Cuban Action (Cuban Power) members participated in the bombings of 5 offices in Los Angeles, California. These were 2 airline ticket offices, 2 Mexican Government tourists offices, and the office of an oil company.

HECTOR CORNILLOT and JUAN GARCIA CARDENAS were subsequently convicted of 2 of these bombing. After CORNILLOT was released from prison in California he was charged with the bombing of an Air Canada ticket office in Miami Beach. He was sentenced to 30 years, but this sentence was reduced to 10 years after an appeal. He is still in jail, as he escaped for a few months a couple of years ago.

In October, 1968, ORLANDO BOSCH and 8 other members of his Cuban Action group were arrested by the FBI in Miami, for firing on or tampering with a vessel of foreign registry (T. 18, Sect. 2275). This was for the placing of the bomb on the Lancastrian Prince. If you will recall, I mentioned that fingerprints were found on newspapers inside the bomb.

BOSCH and 2 other members of his group (BARBARO BALAN and JOSE DIAZ MOREJON) were charged with firing the 57mm recoilless rifle at the Polish ship Polanica. BOSCH was also charged with sending threatening telegrams to the President of Mexico, to General FRANCO of Spain, and to the Prime Minister of Great Britain (Sir HAROLD WILSON).

These nine persons were tried in November, 1968, in the U.S. District Court in Miami, and were found guilty of all counts. Except for BOSCH, the defendants received sentences ranging from 1 to 6 years imprisonment. BOSCH received a 10 year sentence. (Sentenced 12/13/68).

BOSCH, who was sentenced on December 13, 1968, was paroled on December 15, 1972. He served 4 years, which apparently was not long enough, as he began planning terrorist activities immediately upon his release. In June, 1974, he publicly admitted having sent package bombs to Cuban Embassies in Lima, Peru; Madrid, Spain; Ottawa, Canada, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The bomb sent to Lima injured a girl who received the bomb, and the bomb sent to Madrid exploded injuring a Spanish postal employee. A parole violator's warrant was obtained for his arrest in June, 1974, but he fled the U.S. before he could be arrested. BOSCH then traveled to various countries in Latin America, where he lived for a few months at a time. These countries included Chile, Costa Rica and Venezuela. As you will recall, a bomb was placed on a Cubana Airlines airplane in Barbados in October, 1976. The bomb exploded shortly after takeoff and the plane crashed while trying to return to the airport. All 73 passengers and crewmen were killed. BOSCH and others were arrested for this crime, and they are still in prison in Venezuela.

The reason I mention this incident is that after BOSCH was arrested by Venezuelan authorities for this airplane bombing, Cuban exile terrorists within a 9-month period placed 5 bombs in Venezuelan establishments. The targets were 2 VIASA (Venezuelan Airlines) ticket offices (in San Jan and Miami), a Venezuelan Air Force DC-9 at the Miami International Airport, the Venezuelan Mission to the U.N. in New York City, and the Venezuelan Consulate in San Juan.

After BOSCH was jailed in October, 1968, there were very few bombings or terrorist activities until after his release in December, 1972. 1973 was a slow year because it took him a while to stir up members of the Cuban community in Miami who had a propensity for terrorism. In 1974, in Miami alone, there were 14 bombings. A new group of terrorists was beginning to emerge.

In March, 1974, LUIS CRESPO and HUMBERTO LOPEZ, JR. were constructing a book bomb when it accidentally detonated. Both were severely wounded, one of them losing a hand, the sight of one eye, and other serious injuries. This book bomb was to be mailed to a Cuban Embassy in some foreign country.

HUMBERTO LOPEZ, JR. had been released on bond, fled the United States, and went to the Dominican Republic. On October 4, 1975, he was deported from the Dominican Republic and was arrested by the FBI on his arrival in Miami for bond default. Only 2 days later, on October 6, 1975, a high explosive bomb detonated at the Dominican Consulate on Brickell Avenue in Miami.

For security reasons, LOPEZ was then moved by the U.S. Marshals to the Broward County Jail. Four days after the bomb went off in the Dominican Consulate, a small bomb exploded in front of the Broward County Court House.

Then 7 days later a high explosive bomb exploded at the main entrance to the Miami International Airport. This bomb had been placed in a locker. This location was close to the ticket counter of the Dominican Airline. Then on October 20, 1975, a bomb was found at the Dominican Airlines ticket office on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. This bomb did not go off because of a weak battery. It had been set to go off at midnight.

So now, within 16 days of the deportation of terrorist HUMBERTO LOPEZ, JR. to the U.S., we have 4 bombings to protest his deportation and arrest.

HUMBERTO LOPEZ, JR. and LUIS CRESPO were part of a new group which bore the name "Frente de Liberacion Nacional de Cuba" (National Liberation Front of Cuba) or better known as the FLNC. This terrorist organization has been involved in scores of bombings over the past few years.

At this point a series of bombings which occurred in Miami in 1975 and 1976 should be discussed.

As previously mentioned, on October 17, 1975, a high explosive bomb detonated in a suitcase locker at the main entrance of the Miami International Airport. On December 3 & 4 of the same year, 8 bombs went off. The targets were several government buildings, including the FBI Office, Post Office buildings and the local prosecutor's office, as well as the Miami PD. Among hundreds and hundreds of leads covered, descriptive data of people believed involved in Cuban exile terrorism in one way or another was sent to FBI Headquarters. This is the value of working these groups for years. Generally it was known who the people were. Hundred of names were sent to the FBI Latent Fingerprints Section so that fingerprints and palm prints found on items of evidence on those bombings could be compared with fingerprint cards of these individuals. Three weeks later FBI Headquarters advised that fingerprints on military communiques claiming credit for these bombings were those of ROLANDO OTERO. His fingerprint was also found inside the locker where the bomb had exploded at the Miami International Airport 2 months earlier. OTERO was a member of Brigade 2506.

Now that we knew who was involved in those bombings, it was just a matter of hard detailed work to gather enough additional evidence to prove an air-tight case against him. However, he fled to the Dominican Republic before he could be arrested. He then went to Venezuela, and then to Chile from where he was deported to the United States in June, 1976. OTERO was tried for these 9 bombings in the U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Florida, and was found not guilty. In January, 1977, he was then tried in a State of Florida Court in Fort Walton Beach, at which time he was found guilty of the airport bombing and sentenced to 45 years. OTERO in now free, walking the streets on Miami. The judge who tried OTERO released him on bond a few months ago, pending his appeal.

Another small group in Miami which was responsible for a few bombings is that of ANTONIO DE LA CORVA. In May, 1976, a confidential informant advised that he and others were going to place a bomb in an adult bookstore in the Little Havana Section of Miami. This store was surveilled by the FBI and local law enforcement officials and DE LA COVA was apprehended as he was lighting the fuse to set off the bomb. Two other persons who were with him were also arrested. All were convicted. DE LA COVA was sentenced to 65 years in prison.

After the arrest of ROLANDO OTERO and DE LA COVA and his group, there was not one bombing in the Miami area for over a year; not until May, 1977. At that time, Mackey Airlines, a small airline which flies mostly to the Bahamas, made it known that it was interested in flying charter flights to Cuba. On May 25, 1977, a bomb destroyed their headquarters at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Within a few hours of this bombing the management issued a press release stating that the airline was no longer interested in flying to Cuba -- a successful operation by Cuban exile terrorists.

Another terrorists group has been part of Brigade 2506. As previously mentioned, Brigade 2506 is comprised of participants of the Bay of the Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. This organization which now comprises over 1000 members has its headquarters in Miami. As the leader of the anti-CASTRO movement, the Brigade is always in the forefront when any activities, most of them legal, are carried on against the CASTRO regime in Cuba. However, some members of Brigade 2506, the more militant members, have become terrorists and have been involved in terrorist acts such as raids against Cuba, violent acts against Cuban establishments and personnel abroad, and bombings in the Miami area. For a period in 1975 and 1976, these terrorists within the Brigade formed the "April 17 Movement". This name was adopted because the actual invasion of Cuba by the Brigade was on April 17 1961.

Another Cuban exile terrorist group which is becoming better known at this time is the Movimiento Nacionalista Cubano (Cuban Nationalist Movement). This organization, an extremely violent one, was organized in late 1969. GUILLERMO NOVO and his brother, IGNACIO, were the founders of this organization. They, along with CNM member ALVIN ROSS DIAZ, were recently convicted for activities surrounding the bombing murders of ORLANDO LETELIER and RONNI MOFFIT in Washington, D.C.. Two fugitives in this case, JOSE DIONISIO SUAREZ ESQUIVEL and VIRGILIO PAZ, are also members of the CNM.
At the present time this organization is still involved in terrorist activities and plans for violence.

Up to this point 5 of the Cuban exile terrorist groups have been mentioned. They are ORLANDO BOSCH's Cuban Action Movement, part of the Veterans of the Brigade 2506, the National Liberation Front of Cuba, the April 17th Movement which no longer exists, and the Cuban Nationalist Movement. The reason I stress these groups is that in June, 1976, representatives of each one of these organizations met in the Dominican Republic to form a unified action group. The name of this newly formed action group is CORU, which stands for Coordinacion de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations), better known as CORU.

In a nutshell, this new unified or umbrella organization composed of Cuban exile terrorist groups, agreed to conduct terrorist actions designed to hurt the FIDEL CASTRO Regime in Cuba. Specifically they discussed names to be used to claim credit for a terrorist action. They mentioned kidnappings as a method of achieving their goals, and they discussed terrorist activities in general.

It was decided that CORU would claim responsibility for any terrorists acts outside the U.S.. Incidents inside the U.S. would be attributed to other organizations in order to throw authorities off the track. Consequently, attacks in the U.S. have been variously claimed by El Condor, Omega 7, the Pedro Luis Boitel Commandos and Cesar Baez group.

What has happened since the creation of CORU?
Within 2 weeks there was an attempted bombing of a Cubana airliner in Panama.
Then the attempted bombing of a Cubana airliner in Kingston, Jamaica. A bomb was placed in a suitcase which was to be loaded on this airplane, but fortunately the plane was late and the bomb exploded before it was placed on the aircraft. (Here see the appendix attached hereto for a list of Cuban exile terrorist actions since the formation of CORU).

(Here go down list of bombings in South America and Caribbean).

After the bombing of the Cubana airliner a CORU leader wanted to prove that CORU had not been destroyed as a result of the arrest of BOSCH and others in Venezuela for this bombing. On October 30, 1976, this leader flew to Madrid, Spain, where 2 bombs exploded on November 6 & 7, 1976. One of the bombs exploded in the Cubana Airline ticket office, another in a leftist bookstore.

As can be seen from the Appendix, the list of terrorist acts continues to the present.

Before presenting an update of the present situation as it involves Cuban exile terrorists, one more case should be mentioned, as it involves not an attack against a diplomatic establishment abroad, nor a bombing in the United States; rather, this case involves a planned attack from Miami against the Cuban mainland or Cuban navy patrol boats.

In early June, 1977, investigation revealed that some Cuban exiles associated with Brigade 2506 in Miami were planning an armed attack against Cuba from the United States. Surveillance of various suspects by U.S. Customs, the FBI, Dade County Public Safety Department, Miami Police Department, U. S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for over 2 months revealed that 7 exiles had 3 boats which they were outfitting for an attack against the Cuban mainland or against Cuban patrol boats on the northern coast of Cuba. After watching these boats make trial runs over a few week period, one person was arrested on August 15, 1977, and was charged with the unlawful possession of firearms and destructive devices. Also arrested at a later date were the Military Director of Brigade 2506, and 2 other persons.

Recovered during this operation were:
2 BAR automatic rifles
1 - 20mm foreign-made cannon
1 - 50-caliber machine gun
1 - 30-caliber air-cooled machine gun

Several M-15 rifles, plus a large amount of ammunition for these weapons. On one of the boats was located several bags of military-type clothing.

After a trial in U.S. District Court in Miami on October 19, 1977, all defendants were found not guilty of possession of automatic weapons. In July, 1978, the Federal Judge said that these persons could not be tried for a violation of the Neutrality Laws as this would constitute double jeopardy. All are now walking the streets of Miami.

The Cuban exile terrorist situation as it exists at this moment is serious.

The cauldron is bubbling. We still have the same underlying problem which has caused the violent actions mentioned above. But, in addition, there is another major problem. Last September and October (1978) some Cuban exiles were in contact with the FIDEL CASTRO Government in Cuba. Out of several meetings came an agreement by CASTRO to release nearly all political prisoners in Cuba, and allow them to also leave Cuba. Later, he also agreed to allow Cuban exiles in the U.S. and elsewhere to visit Cuba to see their relatives. Most of these exiles have not seen their relatives for 10 to 20 years. Generally, the Cuban community in Miami and elsewhere was pleased. Political prisoners in Cuban jails for up to 20 years would be reunited, if only temporarily, with their loved ones in Cuba. Everything up to this point seemed to favor cordiality and a lessening of tensions between the Cuban exile community and the government of Cuba. But just the opposite happened within the context of terrorism.

FIDEL CASTRO said he now wanted a dialogue with what he calls the community. By "community" he means the Cuban exile community. Before last October, the Cuban Government referred to Cuban exiles as "gusanos" ) (worms). Now they are being called "the community". The Cuban Government then invited 75 Cuban exiles to Havana for a meeting with FIDEL CASTRO. This occurred in October of last year. These dialoguers and the Cuban Government reached the agreement just mentioned, and the first group of prisoners and their families, about 125 persons, flew to Miami on October 21, 1078.

Immediately the militants and terrorists started screaming that the 75 dialoguers were traitors. A well-known Cuban exile banker in Miami was called a Cuban G-2 Agent and a traitor. His bank was picketed. There was, and is at this time in-fighting among the dialoguers. Some of the dialoguers don't like the Reverend (MANUEL) ESPINOZA. They feel he is too flamboyant, that he may be an intelligence agent for the Cuban Government, that he is too outspoken and that he is making money on Cuban exile tours. There are several travel agencies in Miami now and elsewhere in the U.S. which arrange these tours. The parent agency is named "Havanaturs" and it is incorporated in Panama. All tours must be arranged through "Havanaturs". Cuban exiles believe "Havanaturs" is therefore an agency of the Cuban Government. There are basically two airline companies which fly these Cuban exile terrorists to Cuba: Southeast Airlines and Belize Airways. Usually there are 3 flights a day. Two flights proceed directly from Miami to Cuba by Southeast, and one flight by Belize Airways flies to Cuba by way of Merida, Yucatan. The tours are for 1 week, and the cost is $850.00. This includes 7 nights in a hotel, meals and some entertainment.

When the flights to Cuba first started this year, they flew through Jamaica and Mexico, but most now fly directly from Miami to Cuba.

When the flights first started, Cuban exiles were flying to Cuba with suitcases full of gifts. Women were wearing 3 & 4 dresses; men, several pairs of trousers. Their suitcases were filled with transistor radios, electric fans and tape recorders.

What does all this mean in reference to Cuban exile terrorism? It means that the terrorists have a new and fertile ground in which to sow their seeds, or plant their bombs of discontent.

The dialoguers are being threatened. In Puerto Rico, CARLOS MUNIZ, the operator of one of these travel agencies, was shot to death the end of April of this year. His office had been bombed on January 4, 1979.

The Cuban community in exile, and particularly the terrorists, are also upset at the travel agencies, at the airlines and at "Havanaturs" because of the excessive price of the tour to Cuba: $850 for 7 days. These exiles generally go to Cuba to be with their families, and therefore do not spend any time at the hotels, nor do they eat at the hotels. However, they are charged for this.

Another factor which really upsets the exile community is the fact that on May 1, 1979, the Cuban Government announced that the exiles would not be allowed to take most gifts to Cuba without paying duty at Cuban Customs. These gifts, sometimes bought with thousands of dollars of borrowed money, are a way of showing relatives that they have not been forgotten. The new law imposes taxes and other penalties including confiscation, that in effect limits tourists to "personal effects" during their visit. This infuriated many exiles and particularly the more violence-prone.

As a result of these factors, the terrorists are talking tough. There have been many bomb threats to the airlines flying to Cuba; the terrorists in the various groups are talking about violent actions against these airlines, against the dialoguers, and against "Havanaturs". Dialoguer ESPINOZA, the Reverend, has had a motorcade in Miami protesting violence. The anti-Castros are having marches protesting the dialogues with Cuba.

How much violence will be fomented by Cuban exile terrorists in the foreseeable future? Nobody knows at this time. However, the FBI and other Federal agencies as well as local law enforcement agencies are devoting considerable time and manpower to anti-Castro terrorism in an effort to prevent violent acts and to gather enough information to enable the gathering of admissible evidence to prosecute and convict those who are responsible.



More to follow later.





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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-26-10 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
1. Mullin: The Burden of a Violent History
The Burden of a Violent History
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2000-04-20/news/mullin
By Jim Mullin
published: April 20, 2000
The following list of violent incidents I compiled from a variety of databases and news sources (a few come from personal experience). It is incomplete, especially in Miami's trademark category of bomb threats. Nor does it include dozens of acts of violence and murder committed by Cuban exiles in other U.S. cities and at least sixteen foreign countries. But completeness isn't the point. The point is to face the truth, no matter how difficult that may be. If Miami's Cuban exiles confront this shameful past -- and resolutely disavow it -- they will go a long way toward easing their neighbors' anxiety about a peaceful future.

1968 From MacArthur Causeway, pediatrician Orlando Bosch fires bazooka at a Polish freighter. (City of Miami later declares "Orlando Bosch Day." Federal agents will jail him in 1988.)

1972 Julio Iglesias, performing at a local nightclub, says he wouldn't mind "singing in front of Cubans." Audience erupts in anger. Singer requires police escort. Most radio stations drop Iglesias from playlists. One that doesn't, Radio Alegre, receives bomb threats.

1974 Exile leader José Elias de la Torriente murdered in his Coral Gables home after failing to carry out a planned invasion of Cuba.

1974 Bomb blast guts the office of Spanish-language magazine Replica.

1974 Several small Cuban businesses, citing threats, stop selling Replica.

1974 Three bombs explode near a Spanish-language radio station.

1974 Hector Diaz Limonta and Arturo Rodriguez Vives murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1975 Luciano Nieves murdered after advocating peaceful coexistence with Cuba.

1975 Another bomb damages Replica's office.

1976 Rolando Masferrer and Ramon Donestevez murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1976 Car bomb blows off legs of WQBA-AM news director Emilio Milian after he publicly condemns exile violence.

1977 Juan José Peruyero murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1979 Cuban film Memories of Underdevelopment interrupted by gunfire and physical violence instigated by two exile groups.

1979 Bomb discovered at Padron Cigars, whose owner helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1979 Bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Powerful anti-personnel bomb discovered at American Airways Charter, which arranges flights to Cuba.

1981 Bomb explodes at Mexican Consulate on Brickell Avenue in protest of relations with Cuba.

1981 Replica's office again damaged by a bomb.

1982 Two outlets of Hispania Interamericana, which ships medicine to Cuba, attacked by gunfire.

1982 Bomb explodes at Venezuelan Consulate in downtown Miami in protest of relations with Cuba.

1982 Bomb discovered at Nicaraguan Consulate.

1982 Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre defends $10,000 grant to exile commando group Alpha 66 by noting that the organization "has never been accused of terrorist activities inside the United States."

1983 Another bomb discovered at Replica.

1983 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1983 Bomb explodes at Paradise International, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1983 Bomb explodes at Little Havana office of Continental National Bank, one of whose executives, Bernardo Benes, helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1983 Miami City Commissioner Demetrio Perez seeks to honor exile terrorist Juan Felipe de la Cruz, accidentally killed while assembling a bomb. (Perez is now a member of the Miami-Dade County Public School Board and owner of the Lincoln-Martí private school where Elian Gonzalez is enrolled.)

1983 Gunfire shatters windows of three Little Havana businesses linked to Cuba.

1986 South Florida Peace Coalition members physically attacked in downtown Miami while demonstrating against Nicaraguan contra war.

1987 Bomb explodes at Cuba Envios, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes at Almacen El Español, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes at Cubanacan, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Car belonging to Bay of Pigs veteran is firebombed.

1987 Bomb explodes at Machi Viajes a Cuba, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes outside Va Cuba, which ships packages to Cuba.

1988 Bomb explodes at Miami Cuba, which ships medical supplies to Cuba.

1988 Bomb threat against Iberia Airlines in protest of Spain's relations with Cuba.

1988 Bomb explodes outside Cuban Museum of Art and Culture after auction of paintings by Cuban artists.

1988 Bomb explodes outside home of Maria Cristina Herrera, organizer of a conference on U.S.-Cuba relations.

1988 Bomb threat against WQBA-AM after commentator denounces Herrera bombing.

1988 Bomb threat at local office of Immigration and Naturalization Service in protest of terrorist Orlando Bosch being jailed.

1988 Bomb explodes near home of Griselda Hidalgo, advocate of unrestricted travel to Cuba.

1988 Bomb damages Bele Cuba Express, which ships packages to Cuba.

1989 Another bomb discovered at Almacen El Español, which ships packages to Cuba.

1989 Two bombs explode at Marazul Charters, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1990 Another, more powerful, bomb explodes outside the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture.

1991 Using crowbars and hammers, exile crowd rips out and urinates on Calle Ocho "Walk of Fame" star of Mexican actress Veronica Castro, who had visited Cuba.

1992 Union Radio employee beaten and station vandalized by exiles looking for Francisco Aruca, who advocates an end to U.S. embargo.

1992 Cuban American National Foundation mounts campaign against the Miami Herald, whose executives then receive death threats and whose newsracks are defaced and smeared with feces.

1992 Americas Watch releases report stating that hard-line Miami exiles have created an environment in which "moderation can be a dangerous position."

1993 Inflamed by Radio Mambí commentator Armando Perez-Roura, Cuban exiles physically assault demonstrators lawfully protesting against U.S. embargo. Two police officers injured, sixteen arrests made. Miami City Commissioner Miriam Alonso then seeks to silence anti-embargo demonstrators: "We have to look at the legalities of whether the City of Miami can prevent them from expressing themselves."

1994 Human Rights Watch/Americas Group issues report stating that Miami exiles do not tolerate dissident opinions, that Spanish-language radio promotes aggression, and that local government leaders refuse to denounce acts of intimidation.

1994 Two firebombs explode at Replica magazine's office.

1994 Bomb threat to law office of Magda Montiel Davis following her videotaped exchange with Fidel Castro.

1996 Music promoter receives threatening calls, cancels local appearance of Cuba's La Orquesta Aragon.

1996 Patrons attending concert by Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba physically assaulted by 200 exile protesters. Transportation for exiles arranged by Dade County Commissioner Javier Souto.

1996 Firebomb explodes at Little Havana's Centro Vasco restaurant preceding concert by Cuban singer Rosita Fornes.

1996 Firebomb explodes at Marazul Charters, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1996 Arson committed at Tu Familia Shipping, which ships packages to Cuba.

1997 Bomb threats, death threats received by radio station WRTO-FM following its short-lived decision to include in its playlist songs by Cuban musicians.

1998 Bomb threat empties concert hall at MIDEM music conference during performance by 91-year-old Cuban musician Compay Segundo.

1998 Bomb threat received by Amnesia nightclub in Miami Beach preceding performance by Cuban musician Orlando "Maraca" Valle.

1998 Firebomb explodes at Amnesia nightclub preceding performance by Cuban singer Manolín.

1999 Violent protest at Miami Arena performance of Cuban band Los Van Van leaves one person injured, eleven arrested.

1999 Bomb threat received by Seville Hotel in Miami Beach preceding performance by Cuban singer Rosita Fornes. Hotel cancels concert.

January 26, 2000 Outside Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, protester displays sign reading, "Stop the deaths at sea. Repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act," then is physically assaulted by nearby exile crowd before police come to rescue.

April 11, 2000 Outside home of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, radio talk show host Scot Piasant of Portland, Oregon, displays T-shirt reading, "Send the boy home" and "A father's rights," then is physically assaulted by nearby exile crowd before police come to rescue.










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Wilms Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-26-10 10:52 PM
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2. k&r n/t
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-27-10 05:01 PM
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3. Fidel Made Them Do It
Fidel Made Them Do It
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2001-08-09/news/fidel-made-them-do-it/print
Posada Carriles is in jail -- again -- for plotting against Castro.
And again, he's sure it's Castro's fault.

Thursday, Aug 9 2001

In the quasi cold war that sputters back and forth across the Florida Straits (and occasionally explodes), there is often a wide gulf between words and deeds. Such is the case with the arrest in Panama nine months ago of 73-year-old Luis Posada Carriles and three Miami-Dade residents who have spent a lifetime loathing Fidel Castro. Panamanian authorities charged them with plotting to kill the Cuban head of state with a bomb made of C-4 plastic explosives during the Tenth Ibero-American Summit last November. "¡Viva Panama!" Castro exclaimed at a news conference after Posada's arrest, "the land where the most famous criminal in the hemisphere has been captured!"

Posada and his cohorts, however, insist they were framed. Cuban government double agents lured them to Panama, their lawyer told journalists, on a bogus mission to help a general defect. Then the agents planted the explosives in Posada's rental car. In other words Posada -- a man who was trained by the CIA in the use of explosives in the early Sixties, was chief of surveillance for the Venezuelan secret police in the late Sixties, escaped from a Caracas prison in 1985, and survived an assassination attempt in Guatemala in 1990 -- was duped. By this logic Castro and his wily operatives also have fooled Panama's law-enforcement establishment. Or key members of it are involved in a grand conspiracy with the socialist dictator.

The Panamanian justice system, one hopes, will find the truth in these two incompatible narratives of events surrounding Posada's arrest. A trial has yet to be scheduled, and both accounts are still works in progress. Through their Miami-based friend Santiago Alvarez, Posada and his partners recently launched a publicity campaign to provide journalists with their version. The Panamanian Attorney General's Office is not releasing details of the case, but pretrial records recently reviewed by New Times show that prosecutors in that nation's First Judicial Circuit have compiled hundreds of pages of statements by defendants, witnesses, explosives experts, and law-enforcement officers.

Despite the vast anomalies, accusers and accused concur on the following facts. Posada and his companions -- 65-year-old Gaspar Jimenez, 67-year-old Guillermo Novo, and 56-year-old Pedro Remón -- were in Panama City on November 16. Posada and Jimenez had entered Panama with fraudulent passports. On the afternoon of November 17, officers from Panama's Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) arrested all four at the Coral Suites Hotel. Some time that day, witnesses say, a black-and-aqua Florida Marlins tote bag was behind the driver's seat of a red Mitsubishi Lancer that

Posada had rented using an alias. The bag contained enough plastic explosives to level a building and kill people up to 200 meters away. The next day police arrested two other men -- José Hurtado, a Panamanian youth who chauffeured Posada's red rental car, and his boss, Cesar Matamoros, a 64-year-old Cuban native who owns a boat-parts factory in Panama City. On November 20 one of Hurtado's neighbors showed police the spot in a vacant lot on the outskirts of Panama City where she had buried the explosives-laden bag. Authorities dug it up and placed it into evidence.

But perplexing disparities revolve around the following questions. Why did the four accused meet up in western Panama near the Costa Rican border at a farm owned by a friend of Posada? Why did Jimenez travel from there to Panama City by car when the three other defendants flew? Why were Posada and Jimenez using fraudulent passports? And why were Posada and his companions scouting locations where Castro would be appearing during the summit? Where did the bag of explosives come from? Who put it into Posada's rental car? When and why?

Questions have long swirled around Posada, who is perhaps the Cuban exile community's most mysterious and contradictory figures. For decades his life has been shrouded in accusation and denial. To many people in Cuba, he is a murderer and terrorist. In 1976 a Cuban court tried Posada in absentia and sentenced him to death for planning the bombing of a Cubana de Aviación DC-9 that year, killing all 73 people onboard, including members of the island's national fencing team. He still denies it. Cuban authorities also blame him for various other acts of violence since then, including a spate of bombings at hotels and restaurants in Havana in 1997.

But to many exiles in Miami, Posada is a hero, his trial in Panama simply his latest anti-Castro battle. They have been sending checks to Posada's friend Alvarez, a general contractor with an office in Hialeah and a million-dollar home in Belle Meade, for a defense fund to support the "brothers in Panama." So far Alvarez has raised $200,000 with the help of on-air campaigns at La Poderosa (WWFE-AM 670) and Radio Mambí (WAQI-AM 710), two bastions of the exile propaganda war against the Castro regime. On a La Poderosa talk show this past week, Novo's wife, Miriam, suggested that Argentina Barrera, the Panamanian government attorney heading up the prosecution, might be a communist.

It was reminiscent of a radio fundraising campaign in early 1983 for Jimenez, who at the time was jailed in Mexico for participating in the killing of a Cuban government official in Merida. Authorities released Jimenez several months later, and he returned to Miami. That same year the U.S. Attorney, citing insufficient evidence, dropped another case in which Jimenez was secretly indicted by a grand jury for involvement in the 1976 bombing that destroyed the legs of Miami radio news director Emilio Milian.

"I assure you they will be out of jail soon," declared Alvarez, who helped plan the Panama mission and has visited the defendants several times this year. "The prosecutors don't have a case."

The prosecutors and their investigators, however, are acting like they do.

According to Ignacio Taylor, chief inspector of the PTJ's Explosives Section, his office received a call on November 17 instructing him to keep his personnel in a state of alert. There was progress in an investigation into the presence of "elements who planned to place explosive devices aimed at President Fidel Castro," he stated in an affidavit. He ordered officers to set up a dragnet near the Coral Suites Hotel. When he arrived at about 2:30 p.m., he saw two subjects walking toward the hotel. "After they noticed our presence," Taylor continued, "they crossed the street and displayed a highly suspicious demeanor." One of his officers asked the duo for their identification documents. Each produced a U.S. passport: Novo and Remón.

Officers held the two in the lobby. When Novo requested some medicine from his room, Det. Rodolfo Osborne escorted him upstairs. According to Osborne, when Novo opened the door, a voice inside exclaimed, "We have to leave because the police are here." It was Posada's. Fifteen years after his escape from a Venezuelan prison, he was in custody again.

Meanwhile outside the hotel, the driver of a red Mitsubishi Lancer, whom detectives later identified to be Hurtado, slowed as if to turn into the driveway. "But after detecting our presence, it sped off in a manner that was not normal," Taylor reported. Officers pursued the vehicle at high speed but lost it. Inside the vehicle was the Marlins bag containing the C-4 explosives, investigators later determined.

Hurtado told authorities that when he discovered the bag, he alerted his boss, Matamoros, who instructed him to dispose of it to avoid getting "mixed up in problems." Hurtado drove to his mother's shanty house on the outskirts of the city and slid it under her bed. At her insistence Hurtado's nephew, who told investigators he thought the bag contained illegal drugs, took it to his aunt Luz's house. She in turn asked her neighbor, Concepcion Rojas, to help her get rid of it. Rojas buried the bag in a nearby vacant lot, where police later unearthed it.

In an April 6 statement at the National Police headquarters, Hurtado maintained his innocence but did not convincingly explain his high-speed flight. "I don't have anything to do with these charges, because I have never tried to assassinate anybody." He was just a driver trying to make some extra money, he added. "It's true, I opened and saw the radios and the plastic bags, but I didn't know what was in them. Later when the authorities inspected it and said it explosives, that's when I knew what was in the bags. At first, as is logical, and since I didn't know what these Cuban gentlemen were planning, I was afraid. But after the authorities ordered me to cooperate, I did."

Hurtado also told authorities that on November 15 he saw Jimenez with a black bag similar to the one that contained the explosives. But he could not say for sure whether it was the same one.

When New Times called Panama's First Judicial Circuit for clarification of the basic facts of the case, investigator Ilka Poveda said neither she nor lead prosecutor Argentina Barrera could comment. While they may have some holes to fill in, the accused have opened some of their own.

You might not know it, but there are parallels between preparing an assassination and planning a defection. At least that's what the defendants contend. Unfortunately they have yet to provide Panamanian authorities with any concrete evidence to support their defection story other than simply to tell it. Six months after his arrest, Posada finally gave a statement at the National Police headquarters on May 16. "First of all, I want to state for the record why I was in Panama," Posada began. "I came to Panama to receive a senior official of the Cuban government who wanted to defect." That official's name, he said, was Gen. Eduardo Delgado, the head of Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence.

Rather than offer proof, however, Posada veered into a five-minute tirade. "For over 42 years, my country has been subjected to tyranny. A million and a half of my compatriots have gone into exile and are dispersed throughout the entire world," he railed. "The Cuban people live under a regime of terror and hunger." He retraced his career fighting "Castroist subversion" in Venezuela in the late Sixties and in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala in the Eighties. He again denied any role in the Cubana de Aviación bombing. He stressed that he was the victim. "The Castro-communist publicity apparatus has implacably persecuted me, trying to blame me for everything that has been done to his regime," he grumbled. "Everything I've been blamed for all these years have been speculations by journalists paid by Castro."

Poveda tried to return him to the subject of explosives. "How was the plan to introduce explosives into Panamanian territory devised?" she asked. Posada said he was willing to answer more questions but at a later date. "I don't feel well right now," he complained.

"State if you planned the introduction of the explosives into Panamanian territory," the investigator pressed. "Or if not, who did?"

"Right now I am experiencing mental confusion," Posada insisted. He declined to answer three more questions: when the explosives were introduced into Panama, who handled them, and whether he was responsible for arming them. Poveda ended the deposition.

It was another Posadaian moment in a history of incredible explanations, that is, when the anti-Castro warrior is not avoiding explanations altogether. For instance in an extremely rare interview in 1991, he told then-Miami Herald reporter Christopher Marquis that Cuban government agents were behind the 1976 Cubana bombing. Venezuelan police arrested two young men who had disembarked from the plane in Barbados, the aircraft's final stop before it exploded shortly after taking off from the island. One of those suspects was an employee at Posada's private security firm in Caracas. Posada, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while still awaiting trial for the bombing, told Marquis that a man named Ricardo "Monkey" Morales had confided that Cuban agents paid him to place the bomb and then frame the two young Venezuelans. In other words, according to Posada, Cuban government agents paid Morales to blow up a Cuban government jet. (Morales was killed in a barroom fight in Key Biscayne in 1982.)

Posada avoided scrutiny in 1986, when he inadvertently popped up as a coordinator of clandestine, and illegal, shipments of U.S. military aid to the Nicaraguan contras, at a time when Congress had cut off such assistance. His cover was blown when Eugene Hasenfus, a mercenary pilot shot down by Sandinista troops while on a secret contra supply mission, identified Posada as one of his bosses. The shootdown fueled the congressional investigations that soon erupted into the Iran-contra affair. But the Cuban explosives expert eluded the spotlight, which remained on Oliver North, Richard Secord, and others responsible for hiring him.

Posada again stretched credulity in a 1998 interview with reporters Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter for a New York Times article. During the conversation Posada took credit for the Havana bombings in 1997 and said Cuban American National Foundation founder Jorge Mas Canosa had financed them. After his remarks were published, Posada recanted them. Adding another perplexing twist, he recently alleged in a letter to New Timesthat Bardach and Rohter coerced him by "threatening to publish classified information to which I never thought a newspaper could have access." If published it could have hurt the reputations of "prominent members of the United States military intelligence community" involved in the Iran-contra affair, he wrote. He added that Bardach and Rohter also threatened to publish the name of "who they thought was the source of financing for covert operations on the island to establish contact with Cuban soldiers disenchanted with the Castro regime." His mentioning of Mas Canosa was a diversion to evade the journalists' "persecution." But he now considered his maneuver a "tactical error."

As for the Panama case, Posada is letting Remón do most of the explaining. "Pedro Remón is more articulate than him," Alvarez explained. "And Luis has a lot of problems communicating because of a gunshot wound in the jaw." He's referring to a bullet that pierced Posada's mandible and severed his tongue during the 1990 ambush in Guatemala City.

According to Pedro Remón, he and his three colleagues' odyssey to Panama began with a call from a man named Emilio in June of last year to Posada's cell phone in San Salvador. What follows is based on Remón's statements at Panama's National Police headquarters on May 29, May 30, May 31, and June 5.

In the phone call Emilio told Posada he had just arrived from Cuba with an important message. "Making use of his police skills," Remón explained, Posada asked Emilio who had sent him.

"Ramiro," Emilio responded.

So far so good. Ramiro was an anti-Castro operative working inside Cuba, Remón noted. Posada proceeded with another security check. "Yo quiero," he said. "I want." To which Emilio replied, "Sin patria pero sin amo." (Without country but without master.) In the parlance of espionage, Posada had given him a code word, and Emilio responded with the correct countersign.

Posada initially was so excited, Remón continued, that he told Emilio he would meet him immediately. But then he remembered the day he was ambushed in Guatemala and changed his mind. They would meet the next morning at the Cafeteria Biggest. Posada was to wear a guayabera and khaki pants; Emilio, a dark blue long-sleeve shirt.

The next morning Posada and two friends went early and conducted surveillance for potential assassins.

Prosecutor Argentina Barrera interrupted.

"Were you present for the events you are describing?" she asked.

"No, this is Posada's version," Remón replied and continued the narrative.

At about 9:00 a.m. Emilio entered the cafeteria, spotted Posada, and proceeded to break a few security rules. He greeted Posada by his first name and then blurted out his sin patria countersign before Posada could say anything. But no one seemed to notice, and they ordered donuts and tea. Emilio informed Posada that Ramiro had received a sum of money and a global-positioning system that Posada had sent to him.

Then Emilio supposedly looked around as if to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Here was the big secret: In November at the Ibero-American Summit in Panama, Gen. Eduardo Delgado, the chief of Cuba's intelligence agency, was going to defect. For security reasons, Emilio warned, the general insisted his rendezvous be with just one person. Further he wanted that individual to be Posada, because he knew "Posada's connections with the CIA" would ensure him safe passage to the United States. Emilio added that Delgado would be looking for Posada's face because it was well-known inside Cuba. So well-known, Posada laughed, that the Cuban intelligence service uses his face for target practice.

Barrera stopped Remón again. "Did the person named Emilio ever make contact with you?"

"No, madam attorney," Remón replied.

"Did he ever make contact with Gaspar Jimenez or Guillermo Novo?" she asked.

Again he said no.

The Cafeteria Biggest meeting ended, and, according to Remón, Posada did not communicate with Emilio again until early November, when the two spoke by telephone. By then Posada would be in Panama.

Remón told Panamanian authorities he first learned of the defection plan in El Salvador after flying there from Miami on August 26 at Posada's request. "Among other things Posada asked me to make arrangements for political asylum for the future defector with one of my friends in the United States," Remón explained to Barrera. "At the same time I insisted that Luis Posada Carriles should not travel to Panama alone, that he should go there a few weeks early to familiarize himself with the terrain, rent at least three different apartments in different parts of the city, and prepare and study different escape routes for the defector."

Several days later Remón returned to Miami and to his job as director of sales and marketing for Sanper Distributors, a Hialeah Gardens-based company that imports cookware from Latin America. In 1985 he was indicted in New York for the 1980 murder of Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia-Rodriguez, a failed assassination attempt, and eight bombings from 1976 to 1980. He was not convicted on most of the charges, but in 1986 a U.S. judge sentenced him to ten years in federal prison, after he pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of another Cuban diplomat in 1980 and to one of the bombings.

Remón didn't tell Gaspar Jimenez about the Panama mission until October, according to Jimenez's statement. The two were in Miami at the time, though Jimenez could not recall the location of the conversation.

You might think that four men planning to receive a defector could simply fly to Panama City and check into a hotel like tourists or businessmen. Not so, say the defendants. Their plan called for them to meet at Paso Canoas, in western Panama near the Costa Rican border. Panamanian investigators determined that Posada traveled from San Salvador to San José, Costa Rica, on October 14 and again on October 24. From the Costa Rican capital he entered Panama using a Salvadoran passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez. He arrived in Panama City the first week of November.

Guillermo Novo, who was acquitted of involvement in the 1976 bombing death of Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier but served four years for lying to a grand jury investigating the crime, flew from Miami to San José on November 13. Three days later he flew to Panama City. Both times he traveled with a valid U.S. passport in his name.

Jimenez flew from Miami to San José on November 14. He was traveling as Manuel Diaz. He had a U.S. passport bearing the false name and his real photograph. (The U.S. embassy in Panama confirmed the fraud this past February in a diplomatic note.) Remón flew from Miami to San José on November 15.

Jimenez and Remón flew in a small plane from San José to the Panamanian border. Jimenez refused to tell investigators how, where, or from whom he had obtained his fraudulent passport in the name of Manuel Diaz. He needed it for the defection mission because he was on a list of 55 dangerous people that Castro had given Panamanian authorities before the summit.

Posada and Novo, meanwhile, traveled in the Mitsubishi rental car from Panama City to meet them. José Hurtado drove. They all went to a nearby farm owned by a Cuban friend of Posada named Pepe Valladares (who currently is under house arrest).

Hurtado told investigators that Posada instructed him to stay at a hotel that night and thus could not comment on what the Cubans discussed at the farm or whether they picked up some C-4 explosives there.

The next day Posada, Novo, and Remón flew to Panama City. Jimenez made the trip by car with Hurtado.

Jimenez denied that the reason he traveled by car was to transport the explosives and detonators, thereby avoiding airport scrutiny. He went by land, he maintained, because he thought flying would make him sick. "When I at the border, I told Mr. Pedro Remón that I wasn't going to get into one of those little planes again because it would kill me," Jimenez told prosecutor Barrera.

Barrera seemed unconvinced.

"State whether you transported the explosives and devices suitable for making a bomb from the Jacu farm to Panama City in the red car driven by José Manuel Hurtado, and what your objectives were in importing these explosives to Panamanian territory during the celebration of the Ibero-American Presidential Summit."

"I already said that I didn't import explosives to Panama, and one would have to be crazy to get on a highway with explosives because of the checkpoints.

"Those explosives were placed by Fidel Castro," he added.

Evidently irate, Jimenez asked authorities why they had not tried to find a terrorism expert "who could say whether four old men could carry out an act of terrorism in a half-hour in a city full of police and vigilance."

In his statement Jimenez admitted he had been suspicious of the idea that Delgado would defect. Perhaps he wondered why a wily comandante would turn to four old men to facilitate a dangerous desertion, which, if bungled, could cost him his life. Four conspicuous old men who were high on the Castro spy network's list of most-wanted counterrevolutionary terrorists.

In his May 29 statement, Remón said he knew for a fact that the Marlins bag and explosives arrived in Panama aboard a Cuban jet carrying Cuban government security personnel. He said "a witness" told him he had seen such a plane unloaded in the cargo section of the airport on November 16 without being inspected. Following the plan formulated in June, Cuban agents then sneaked the bag into Posada's red rental car, Remón said.

"How can you prove this, who did it, and when and where did they do it, according to your version?" Barrera asked Remón.

Unfortunately he could not say. "Madam prosecutor, I must withhold such sensitive information for security reasons," he replied. "It is unfortunate, but I cannot provide proof with first and last names and risk endangering the lives of people inside and outside of Cuba." But this kind of trap is "well-known by Castro-communist intelligence services," he noted.

As of press time, General Delgado had not responded to a request to comment on whether he used this supposedly well-worn trick to fool Posada. But spokesman Luis Fernandez indicated the Castro regime wouldn't put much stock in the defection-based defense: "Posada is a terrorist, and the only credibility that this repugnant character has is his historical record of criminal activities against Cuba."

"An impartial judge would have to absolve my clients," said defense lawyer Martin Cruz, who estimated a judge would not hear the case before November.








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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-27-10 05:20 PM
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4. Can't believe I just saw this tremendous thread! People should save this for their own files.
Got here too late to recommend it.

Just thought of Jim Mullin's great article just the other day. I wish he'd update it to 2010, but it might just be too damned long by now, if he did.

Looking forward to putting things aside later tonight to go through the information here I haven't seen.

Thanks so much for taking the time to bring this material to one place where people have NO EXCUSE for ignorance, if they refuse to avail themselves of the opportunity to learn about it.

What country, indeed, wouldn't overthrow people like this who occupied the government for centuries?
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